Hit the road with me as I aim for gold

So many of you already know that I like to go to cons and cosplay. Well, I had the incredible and adorable opportunity to do a couple cosplay with someone besides my brother.

I cosplayed Asuna from Sword Art Online, and the bae cosplayed Kirito. Yes, the biggest ship in the anime industry (well maybe not, but I think so.)

Without further ado, here are 7 MUST-DO’s for couple cosplayers. Spoken from experience.

1)Take pictures.

Okay this one is obvious. What’s a cosplay without pictures. You’re going to have people constantly asking you, “Can I take your picture? You guys are sooo cute!!!” And so you have to be all cute for ten seconds and smile… or be epic.

Take cute pictures – Because you’re a couple. You have to be adorable.

Take epic pictures – Those in-character pictures that are all dramatic and super cool-looking.

Take selfies… lots of selfies. – What’s a cosplay without selfies?

2) Hug.

People think it’s cute, apparently. More photo ops.

3) Help each other out.

I speak from experience – You both are cosplaying, and you both need some help with the cosplay sometimes. If you’re cool with it, help each other out once in awhile. My Kirito had some serious wig problems every time he started headbanging to a song. It made for some very interesting wig-styling pictures.

4) Look at your merch.

I mean, you’re at a con! You’re bound to find some merchandise related to your cosplay. Maybe grab a souvenir, or just look at it.

5) Find your people.

Look for your fandom. Hetalians and Homestucks are hard to miss. If you find your tribe of weirdness, you might be able to do a group cosplay photoshoot, and those are pretty cool!

6) Play the Pocky game.

If you’ve heard of the Pocky game, good. If you haven’t, just think Lady and the Tramp pasta scene… with chocolate covered biscuit sticks.

And of course…

7) Just kiss.

If you’re not cosplaying with your brother, just kiss. You’ll be in-character anyways.

Soooo that’s a wrap. Have you ever done a couple cosplay before? Share in the comments below.

See you guys next time! 😀

(Con photo creds go to my friend Emma (@EmmaBird2015), and the bae <3. Special thanks to Conbust and the students at Smith College for the opportunity to experience this con and campus!)~#1kid

Now that the swim season is in full swing, I wanted to share a little bit of insight for my friends here.

If you have just recently aged out of the “11-12” age group, you are expected to perform better and swim faster and, of course, swim longer races. This means you have a few short weeks to polish up your stroke and improve your endurance before your first meet.

You won’t be able to swim the 50 Fly anymore, kiddo. Welcome to the big kid pool.

But don’t be afraid of it. The 200 IM isn’t that bad. Think about it this way, you swim plenty of 200 IM’s in practice, so why can’t you do it once in a swim meet in which you are well-rested and full of energy?

I had a terrible mentality about the bigger races when I aged up. I used the excuse of injury to switch to a breaststroker in hopes that I would altogether avoid doing the 200 IM! I was by no means great at the Breaststroke, but I figured if I got better at it, I wouldn’t have to swim the Butterfly.

But in my heart, I was a true Butterflyer. Ever since I was 9, it’s been my stroke. (See pic of me many years ago) So what ended up happening? Well, I was already good at the fly and the free, and my breaststroke was forced to improve because of injury, so that left Backstroke. Still, I didn’t want to do the 200 IM.

Then, for the sake of the long, boring meets and watching everyone else do it, I decided to enter into the 200 Meter IM.

Truthfully, I loved it. It’s now one of my favorite events to swim.

Everyone’s going to have their strengths and weaknesses. We’re all going to have to train harder to fix those weaknesses. But how can you find what your weaknesses are if you’re too afraid to try the task? A chef won’t be able to realize that his nachos aren’t spicy enough if he’s too afraid to make nachos in the first place. Similarly, a chef won’t realize how amazing his nachos are if he’s nervous about how they’ll turn out!

Don’t be like the nacho chef. Do the 200 IM. If you find yourself falling behind on a certain stroke, you now know what you have to work on! Then, guess what! You’ll drop time. You’ll win. You’ll feel stronger. Your age won’t matter anymore.

Okay, so I know the season ended a while ago, but since it was such an exciting experience, I wanted to tell you all about it!

The first meet went pretty well. We swam at a Division 1 college in the 50 meter pool. I had never done something like that, and it was my first time swimming 50 meters instead of yards. It was different, but really exciting.

My events were the 50m free, 100m free, 200m IM, and the 100m Breast. This was also my first time swimming the 200 IM EVER in a meet! As it turns out, I didn’t do that bad. After all, I had only been practicing for a week, as it was very early in the season.

After that, I swam at another college in my state, and surprised myself AGAIN in the 50m pool. I dropped TEN SECONDS in my 200m IM, and I couldn’t wait to tell my coaches when I saw them next. They were surprised. So much so that they put me in the 200 IM on my own team.

At Rec Championships, I swam the 200 yd IM. I placed fifth, and I got a best time 🙂

In my 100 free, my coaches and I have been trying really hard to drop my time to break 1:04. I am pleased to say that I broke that time with a shocking 1:03.58!! That’s a total of 2:06 seconds!

This past week, I’ve been preparing for the next season. Through watching videos of Olympic races, I’ve learned that the race could be in one person’s favor, but another person can come up from behind and win by .01! We can’t give up. We can’t slow down. No matter where we are in that race, we have to keep going.

But the best part of the summer season was the people that I got to chill with. I felt so welcomed into both USS and Rec this year, it was incredible. Now, I’ve had some problems with my peers, and I’ve blogged a little bit about it over the years, but this season was different. Walking into a meet and people saying “Audg! You’re here! Hi!” and giving you a big hug is like:

I felt encouraged and welcomed into the clan of people that I call my friends. They support me, and I shall try my hardest to support them in their races and goals. I learn so much from them, and have been many times I’ve said “DUDE HOW DO YOU GO THAT FAST??”

So, my friends, keep going. You got this. 🙂

Have you ever had a time when you had to force yourself to keep going? Is that time now?

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.” -1 Cor 9:24

Many moons ago, I spoke of a goal that blossomed into an opportunity last summer. This opportunity was swimming in the State Games of America 2015.

So what happened?

My wallet happened. The plane ticket was quite a bit of money that I couldn’t afford.

But here’s the cool thing:

My first USS Swim Meet went really well. So well that I really want to continue.

The first USS meet went like this:

Me: Whoa look at all these people!

Me: They’re really tall.

Me: Oh, man, there are 87 people in my event.

Me: Well, I’m not gonna win.

Me: Hey, how are you?

Person: I’m good!

FRIENDSHIP HAPPENS! 😀

So the lesson was this: There is nothing more exciting than meeting someone that shares your passion. I’m used to the people on my team complaining about how they don’t want to be there. Well, let me tell you this, THESE PEOPLE WANTED TO BE THERE. They signed up for it, they wanted it, and they love what they do! The atmosphere was so different than that of what I was used to, I went home so elated that I ate apple pie!

This post is about CAMP ANIME!!!!! I went last year, but this year was waaaay better in so many ways!

Firstly, I cosplayed this year. If you don’t know what cosplaying is, then basically it’s where people dress up as a character and then hang out with other people that are dressed as a character (perhaps from the same franchise) and have fun. It’s pretty cool when you see how hard fans work to make sure their costumes are just right before a convention.

This year, I cosplayed as Fem!Japan from Hetaia. Honestly, I looked like a really strange girl in traditional Asian clothing with short black hair with a flower in it. I looked pretty different with the short hair, and anyone who already knew me was like “WHAAAA YOU CUT YOUR HAIR NO!!” No, I did not cut my hair. Wigs, my friends, can help you with your cosplays.

Secondly, I had friends with me, and I met a ton of people. I had told my friend about Camp Anime, and she was extremely excited almost immediately. Soon enough, we’re both signed up and psyched!

The two of us met tons of really cool people. It was amazing how many Hetalians were there! Now, we talk all the time!

Thirdly, my siblings and I took part in some really fun panels. One of my favorites was the Movie-Making panel. We had 15 minutes to plot our small story, 15 minutes to film, and 15 minutes to edit our videos. The whole idea was two adults were reminiscing about their first convention, and then there’s a flashback from the convention. It was genius on our friend Austin’s part! This is what it turned out to look like: http://youtu.be/Xn6YbAruJqQ

My friends and I actually ran the Hetalia panel on the spot! We also took part it Live Angry Birds, Sushi Making (Mom’s favorite), and a few others.

The setup of the convention was that of a camp… Actually, it was a camp. We were in the woods, there was a lake, there were cabins where overnight campers slept, and a huge dining hall. My sister and I got the chance to go on a pedal boat, which was very fun.

If you want to see more: Check out this video that sums up the whole weekend! http://youtu.be/g_vUarlESG0

Thank you to all that made Camp Anime possible, to all of my friends, and to Mr. Anthony Santos for the videos. Camp Anime 2014 would not be as amazing as it was without all of you! 😀

My amazing brother, FantasyFan, has joined the swim team! After years of begging him to try out, he’s finally agreed to come for a swim. J

Secondly, I went to training camp.

The Nike Swim Camp was the greatest training experience I’ve ever had. The coaches were head college swimming coaches and the girls’ counselors were actually still swimming in their universities.

Personally, I’ve never done anything like this before so, of course, I was nervous! Turns out, there was absolutely NOTHING to be worried about.

The food there was AWESOME. Three gigantic meals per day and a truckload of pasta. For real. Some of us campers would say as we stuffed our faces, “#Carbsarelife.”

That’s another thing, the campers. I met quite a few new friends this week and we still talk to each other all the time. Whenever I go places, I always stay on the lookout for other swimmers that understand what it’s like to be stuck at a swim meet every weekend, or the joy of winning by a millisecond. I met those people and I am so glad I did! I also would like to mention I had the coolest roommate in the world (shout out to my roommate).

The most important thing I learned is that technique is more important to practice than the stroke itself. Apparently, my elbows weren’t coming up high enough in Freestyle, and my arms were coming too high in my Butterfly, and my head needs to stay down in Breastroke, and my right arm needs to come over my head in my fly/breast turn, etc. The list goes on.

So seriously, check out Nike Swim Camps or any USSC Sports camps here!:

Now, we’ve had plenty of life experiences to tell all about, but now it’s time to get to the real reason of this blog: Road to Gold.

What does it mean? It means this blog is supposedly about my Road to Gold. Of course. Any attempts to get one of those precious medals have failed. I’ve tried once, and it failed due to a head injury.

So now that I’ve gotten back on my feet and am all healed, I can continue on the Road.

This past season has been rather painful. As I mentioned in a previous post, I hurt my shoulder. The sport of archery (FF101, my bro, is well involved in it) has messed up the rotator cuff. It really, really hurt. And it limited my swimming, my skiing, my archery, my tennis, and even my sleep.

The consequence was my best stroke stripped from me for the whole season. Yes, I could not swim Butterfly Stroke at all. If you’ve seen the Butterfly stroke in action, you’d noticed the shoulders. How the work so hard to get those arms up and around with such force. Since Backstroke is also strenuous on the shoulders, I was stuck with my least favorite stroke of them all: Breastroke.

I surprisingly did alright. I definitely improved, an hour and forty-five minutes of freestyle and Breastroke, three times a week must have paid off!

It was a really interesting season. I couldn’t swim as hard as usual, so I wasn’t placed in the big championships. However, I was fast enough to win the smaller championships. 🙂 I got first in all of my events, and getting first and second in the relays.

Now the season is over. And a new challenge awaits.

Remember last summer? The state championships and the concussion? Well, THIS year, each state gets a chance to qualify for the State Games of America 2015 in Nebraska. How to qualify is simple: Get first, second, or third place in your event.

So that’s my goal for this year: Qualify for the SGA. It’s going to be difficult, but I have friends that know I can do it.

Ever think you’re going to fail? Did you feel encouraged to know that people had your back the whole time?

I wanted to remind you that JUST BECAUSE SPRING IS HERE, DOESN’T MEAN THE SNOW’S GONE. What I did with that precious white stuff this winter was probably the coolest ever. Trust me.

So there’s this mountain called Mount Monadnock. Under this popular mountain there is a bible camp called “Monadnock Bible Conference”. The camp had many retreats: Winter Teen, Summer Teen, Summer Kids, Women’s, etc,. I, of course, went to the Winter Teen retreat (Formally called Encounter).

I mean this place had the coolest stuff to do. There was snow tubing, laser tag, a game room, the snack bar, a talent show, and of course, the coolest sessions ever. Not to mention the rubber chickens hidden throughout the camp.

Our secret chicken loot!

The food was heavenly. And I mean heavenly. We had pizza at 11pm on Friday night, pancakes for breakfast, tacos for lunch, mashed potatoes for dinner, I forget for breakfast, and CORN for lunch. It was pretty much the best weekend of food in my life.

The activities were probably one of the best parts. I had mentioned above that there was snow tubing. We went night tubing as well! Actually, at snow tubing, I had met a few new friends who are super awesome!!! The laser tag was also very fun, though someone ran into a barrel while they were shooting at us. It looked like it hurt. A lot.

The music, oh the music. It was so good. One of the leaders rapped for us (which was cool), and the Chris Evans Band lead worship at all of the sessions. He was filled with talent and sang wonderfully, accompanied by his other musically gifted band members.

Dwight Night and his speech series on the 5 Questions

Our speaker, Dwight Knight, was so filled with wisdom and he had so much to offer. Dwight taught us about the 5 Questions:

1. Origin: How did I get here? We need to know how we got here before we start asking anything else.

2. Purpose: Why am I here? Why did God put me on this Earth anyway? The answer is to show everyone that god could love me.

3. Nature: Why do I act the way I do? Because it’s in our nature, of course. We’ve been sinning since Eve ate the apple.

4. Change: How can I be different? You can’t. Sin never really goes away. But filling our minds with prayer, Christian fellowship, and simply God can really make the difference.

And 5. Destiny: What happens after I die? The world keeps on spinning. It was spinning before you were born, and it’ll continue after. However, WE are not just “over” when we die. We accept Jesus while we’re alive, but then we have an eternity with Him when we die.

Have you ever been to a camp or retreat? Did you have fun?

Or how about this: Do yourself a favor and think about the questions above. Check out Dwight’s books if you’d like. 🙂